by Randy Lander

CYBERNARY 2.0 #1 "The King Is Dead" Neutral (4/10) DC Comics/Wildstorm imprint Writer: Joe Harris Pencils: Eric Canete Inks: Juan Vlasco Colors: Carrie Strachan Letters: G. Hartman Editor: Aaron Watanabe Price: $2.95 US/$4.95 CAN The only thing I find more worrying about Wildstorm then the number of spinoffs of The Authority they're releasing is the resurrection of old concepts that are really best left buried. Without wishing to speak ill of the deceased, I have to say that I never found Cybernary at all interesting, and thus far, with Cybernary 2.0, history seems to be repeating itself. There are some intriguing notions being explored in this series, not the least of which is the rebuilding of a country torn apart in the wake of a strike by the Authority and the exploration of what happens to countries when a government based on a single charismatic leader loses that leader. However, those intriguing notions are married to the decidedly familiar and uninteresting sequence of a cyborg rising from the dead and eliminating a number of half-competent obstacles to prove how dangerous and cunning it is. Since the latter, the least interesting part of the book, is where the lead character shows up, my hopes for the series are not too high. However, the "board meeting" of Gamorra Island's various Lords is interesting as we see the decadent lifestyles of those ruling the island, who care not at all for the people they rule. Though it is cliche at this point, the young upstart speaking against the stodgy old group, Harris does put a bit of an interesting twist on it with the old group being more flamboyant and carefree and the upstart wanting to bring back old traditions. If Cybernary is involved quickly in these political dealings and proves to be more than simply a mindless, silent killing machine, there could be hope for the series yet. Unfortunately, in this first issue, what we see of her is built on another cliche, the scrappy urchins, and no comic of this nature has ever benefited from the introduction of kid sidekicks. It's entirely possible that next issue we'll get a curveball and something nasty will happen to the two urchins, but given the heavy amount of cliche and familiarity displayed in this issue, I'm not holding my breath. On the art side, I am slowly growing more interested in Eric Canete's work. I still find it mostly ugly and off-putting, but his style has some resemblance to that of the Pander Brothers, and it fits an ugly, technological setting and story such as this one. He could use a lot more distinction between characters in the political segments, and I found the sequences intended to show us brutal effectiveness a little silly given that we don't actually see anything, but he shows more promise than I've seen in prior projects. In the end, that's my take on this issue: It's got potential to get better. But if the entirety of the series is going to be as familiar and dull as this one, I'm going to be quite disappointed. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.